Lanigan Banks $40,000 Knoxville Prize

KNOXVILLE, Iowa — Darrell Lanigan used a late-race restart to his advantage, passing Josh Richards on lap 95 and leading the remainder of the race to win the 10th annual Lucas Oil Late Model Knoxville Nationals at Knoxville Raceway.

Lanigan earned $40,000 for his first career Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victory.

Josh Richards won the preliminary feature events on Thursday and Friday and was looking to become the second driver in the history of the event to sweep all three nights along with Billy Moyer in 2010.

Richards would have to settle for a runner-up finish tonight in the 100-lap feature event followed by Tim McCreadie, defending race winner Steve Francis and Billy Moyer.

Richards led the first six laps of the race until Dale McDowell took over the point for one circuit. Richards fought back and regained the top spot on lap eight. Richards held the lead until Lanigan took over on lap 20. After the top five drivers battled fiercely for most of the race up front, the final caution came out for Jason Feger who was running third on lap 93, but was collected in a violent crash that included Don O’Neal, Dale McDowell and Scott Bloomquist.

This set up a six-lap shootout to the finish as both Richards and Lanigan would lead the field back to green. On the restart, Lanigan dove to the bottom as he and Richards raced side-by-side down the backstretch.